Everything Breaks
by koyasufan
Summary: Tseng deals with the immediate aftermath of his orders at Sector 7. Then when it's all over, Reno deals with the aftermath of the end of the world he knew.


_(Usual disclaimers. Final Fantasy isn't mine, etc, etc, etc. _

_One shot piece written to humor the muses as I work on something longer that's not cooperating. TsengxReno strongly implied.)_

**Everything Breaks**

_Reckless, foolish..._

Tseng frowned as he stepped into the hospital room that his second had been given. Reno wasn't seriously injured from his stunt at the Sector Seven pillar, but it was enough that he wouldn't be able to work in the field for a few weeks at least. It wasn't the dramatic exit that the red-head had made that was bothering Tseng, however.

"The doctor said you tried to check yourself out of here," he voiced as he closed the door behind him.

Reno looked up from where he was sitting on the narrow windowsill at the window. A cigarette dangled between his fingers. It was unlit, of course, so it must have just been for the comfort of holding it. "I'm bored. And when I'm bored with nothing to do, I start thinking. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how bad it is to think about what we do," the red-head replied as he turned his gaze back to the city outside of the window.

"No, you don't. But this is why I make sure I don't mix business with personal affairs. Or vice versa," Tseng replied, stepping to see what Reno was looking at. His direction sense was usually flawless, but this time he hoped that he turned himself around so many times on the way up to the floor that he was wrong.

He wasn't. The empty hole in the plate that had been Sector Seven was out there mocking them both in the failure.

"I'll speak with the staff about getting you a room on the other side of the building."

Reno looked back at Tseng with those words. "Taking it out of sight won't get what happened out of my mind, boss." He raised the cigarette to his lips and just let it hang there, still unlit and doing no good but for the comfort of the movement. "Shinra know how many people died yet?"

Reno had no respect for authority above Tseng. The dark-haired man knew that better than anyone. It wasn't Shinra that gave Reno a home, after all. So anything outside of Tseng's team was "Shinra" to Reno. Except for Reeve. Tseng had been surprised to see Reno actually treating the head of the Urban Development Department like another human being when Reeve delivered maps they needed for a job.

"No. Reeve estimates that there were at least several hundred people on the top side of the plate. He doesn't have current census numbers on hand right now, though. He's not sure that they'll ever know how many were underneath in the slums."

Tseng watched as Reno stared at the floor, his hair falling forward around his face now that his glasses weren't there to hold it back. This wasn't the heartless sometimes assassin that Tseng was used to seeing out on the streets. It wasn't even the immature boy that he was used to seeing around the towers.

"Collateral damage. Like those people weren't anything important..."

This was the Reno that hid behind those facades. Bruised, battered, and quite possibly emotionally--if not mentally or physically as well--broken, the younger man must not have any strength left for the masks he used to deal with the pain.

"Least they could have done is evacuate the top of the plate..."

And Tseng had been the cause of it. Not only had he sent Reno out with the orders to activate the self-destruct sequence on the pillar, but he had brought the younger man into this life.

"My family could have been there..."

"Your family lives in Sector Three, Reno. And they're safe. I checked on them myself."

"Someone's family was there..."

Tseng pressed his lips tight together. He had nothing that he could say to that except that yes, someone's family was there. There was always a family. Terrorists, gangs, 'slum bosses', they all had families.

"Reno..."

Reno drew in a shaky breath and lifted his head before Tseng could say anything else. "You can't justify this one, boss. I killed people that _could have been my family_. I killed mothers, fathers...I killed kids that had no connection to the targets! Shinra security can't handle some two-bit terrorists, so we get to go in and make an example of them..."

"What did you think was going to happen when the plate came down, Reno? Somehow miss everyone but..."

"I thought Shinra would have evacuated the top of the plate!" The scream cut off whatever Tseng was going to say. That logic was hard to disagree with and harder yet to argue against. Even Tseng had held some far off belief that Shinra would have at least evacuated the top of the plate in his heart. It was too bad that he knew their President better than Reno did. The man's actions were a sham. He cared for nothing but his own gain.

Reno's hand visibly shook as he picked the cigarette up from his lap, then crushed it. Tseng watched him a moment before making his way around the hospital bed between them. "You need sleep, Reno."

Reno snorted out a laugh before throwing the remains of his cigarette to the floor. "And how am I supposed to do that when I don't even have to close my eyes to see the nightmare? I feel like every person that lived down there is screaming at me--pointing at me and screaming 'Murderer! Child-killer!' How am I supposed to...?"

"You have to move past it."

Reno's eyes widened as Tseng brushed red hair back away from a scarred cheek. "I don't think I can."

"You have to." Tseng repeated himself before stepping back and holding his hand out. "Do you trust me?"

Reno stared at the offered hand in silence for a long moment. "You, I trust. You've saved my life more times than I can count. Shinra...can go to hell..." Reno's fingers reached out to touch Tseng's hesitantly.

Tseng smiled slightly before sliding his fingers over Reno's hand and down his wrist. "I always knew that you were smarter than the President thought." The smile grew a little before he wrapped his hand around Reno's wrist and pulled the younger man to his feet.

"He never thought much of anything about me. Some street-smart brat that you hand picked even though I didn't deserve it. That was all that he ever thought about me." Reno laughed, then winced at the movement that it caused. "Too bad he never bothered to find out the truth."

"I doubt he would have believed it if he had." Tseng released his grip on Reno's wrist before moving another step to close the space between them. "That such a troublemaker could have not only made it through school past his fourteenth birthday, but also graduated in the top of his class."

"Better than that br..." Reno blinked as a finger touched his lips, and Tseng shook his head. "Right, of course the room is monitored. Sorry, must be the painkillers."

Tseng smiled slightly. The younger man's views on the company and the lack of respect that he'd show to superiors were well known. His total hatred of the boy that was Rufus Shinra wasn't. It was hard for Reno to like him, Tseng understood that. Reno's family had put everything they had into making sure that their boy would have the best education that they could manage...the best life that they could manage. And Rufus had it all handed to him and didn't even care. "I'll make sure you get a better view, but you should only be here a few more days."

Reno nodded slightly. "Guess I don't get a goodnight kiss?" He flashed a smile at Tseng, who rolled his eyes, then shifted where he was standing.

"No, Reno, no goodnight kiss," Tseng said with a laugh, then moved his hand to tug on a lock of red hair. Work was no place for emotions. No place for the attachment that he felt to the young man standing in front of him. But it was there whether there was a place for it or not, and in the end, he would rather die than see the pain reflected in those eyes. Pain that he caused...

_"Reno!" Two hands locked around his in panic. "Stupid, foolish, Reno..." Tseng pulled the other's body into the safety of the helicopter moments before the first explosions sounded at the pillar. He was barely conscious, and from the way he was breathing, Tseng guessed that his ribs were at least bruised. "Get us out of here before we're caught under the plate!"_

_The pilot nodded as Tseng slumped on the floor and pulled Reno in against his body. The girl they had been sent to retrieve temporarily forgotten as he held his teammate. "Stupid..."_

"I'll come back in a couple of days to check if you can go home. Try to behave until then."

**xxxxx**

Reno reached back and pulled at the band holding his ponytail in place. He heard Elena and Rude step up behind him. "In the end, they were the lucky ones," he murmured. He imagined Elena tilting her head like she always did when he said something that she saw as profound for him. Rude was long ago used to knowing that Reno wasn't the image that he presented. He was much more than a simple hired thug. That was just what he looked like on the outside.

"Reno?" Elena's voice carried forward to him.

"The people in Sector Seven that never had to see this," Rude replied for him. Reno felt the bigger man at his shoulder. "I wonder how many innocents Shinra killed this time."

"They killed Tseng, that's enough for me," Reno whispered back.

Elena was in front of him on the ledge they were standing on before he could blink. "Cloud and his friends killed Tseng, Reno. And you let them go back there!"

Reno shook his head. "No, Elena. Sephiroth killed him, but Shinra sent him there knowing what was going to happen. He knew that he wasn't coming back."

Reno stepped back quickly as Elena lunged at him. "That's a lie! He'd never leave us like that!"

_"Reno, take care of Elena and Rude if something would happen to me..."_

Reno closed his eyes, forcing back the memory. He didn't need to relive the last night he saw his boss right now. "Elena," Rude's voice murmured, warning her of the danger of pushing Reno farther.

"He'd never...!"

Reno's fluttered open. "He did. He told me to take care of you guys, then he kissed me for the _last time_ and left. You think I couldn't feel that he knew he wasn't coming back?"

He watched the slow changes in Elena's expression. The way her eyes widened, then looked down to the ground at her feet. Her lips pressed together into a fine line. To his credit, Reno refrained from anything that would have seemed like a childish mockery of the fact that the man she was in love with was sleeping with him.

"Shinra sent _us_ to die, Elena. Reeve told me as much. But Tseng took the mission for himself. He didn't want us to die. Now get over your loyalty to a company--no, to a man--that would have killed you without batting one of his pretty little eyes. Rufus didn't give a damn about us--that's why I let Cloud and his friends go!"

Elena balled a hand into a fist, looking for a moment like she might try to hit him again. Then she slumped to her knees without a word. "Everything..." She looked up at Reno. The red-head stepped forward and knelt down in front of her.

"Everything breaks, Elena. Even me...Even Tseng." Reno reached a hand out to her. "Everything breaks."

She looked up at him. _At least you have the memory, _her eyes told him.

He smiled at her sadly. _Yes, Elena, at least I have the memory. _"Let's go. I don't know about you two, but I'm not looking forward to camping out here with no supplies," he quipped, reaching with his offered hand to take hers and pulling her to her feet as he stood up.

Reno gave once last glance at the ruins of the city he had called home for his twenty-four years of life. _I'd still rather have him._

_Owari_


End file.
